Safety-envelop.



E. 0. Hommuss.

SAFE TY ENVELOP. APPLICATION FILED DEC. 12. 1915.

Patented July 17, 1917.

err l I PAT I I IQ,,

EDWARD D. I-IOTGI-IKISS, 0F SYRACUSE, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR OE ONE-THIRD'10 STEPHEN S. WILTSIE, OF UTIGA, NEW YORK, AND ONE-THIRD TO GEORGE I1.IVIAKEIEEACE, 0F WHITESBORO, NEW YORK.

SAFETY-ENVELOP.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 1W, 1917.

Application filed December 12, 1916. Serial No. 136,487.

To all whom itmay concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD D. HOTGH- KISS, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Syracuse, in the county of Onondaga and State of NewYork, have invented or dis covered certain new and useful Improvementsin Safety-Envelope, of which the following is a specification, referencebeing had therein to the accompanying drawings.

This invention has for its general object the provision of an envelopwhich, when closed and sealed, cannot be opened without tearing,cutting, or otherwise damaging the parts thereof, thereby rendering itimpossible for unauthorized persons to tamper with the contents thereofwithout detection.

In order surreptitiously to open a sealed envelop it is necessary tocommence at the exposed edge of a flap, and preferably at a cornerthereof, at a point where said edge or corner is secured by adhesive toanother portion or portions of the envelop, and, after loosening saidedge or corner, either with or without steaming, to roll the samebackwardly, or to work along the sealed edge, so as gradually to unsealthe same, until the entire flap is released and access obtained to theinterior of the envelop. In the case of an ordinary envelop theseoperations are usually performed upon the closure flap, the edge ofwhich is secured by adhesive to the back of the envelop. Envelops asusually constructed readily lend themselves to such practices by reasonof the fact that the sealed edge of the closure flap is freely exposed;In order to prevent this it has been heretofore proposed to cover theotherwise exposed edge of the closure flap by another flap or memberwhich, however, itself, presents an exposed edge, enabling said coveringmember to be released in the manner above described, thereby exposingthe edge of the closure flap as before. 7 Another expedient heretoforeproposed has been the provision of a pocket within which the edge of theclosure flap is inserted and sealed, and which pocket is of such acharacter that it cannot be so opened as to give access to the edge ofthe closure flap without tearing or cutting the material of which thesame is made In all such envelope of whichI am aware, however, thehousing of the closure flap leaves exposed the edge and corner of one ormore of the side or bottom flaps which, in accordance with the usualenvelop construction, are folded over and secured to one another byadhesive to form the back of the envelop. A skilful manipulatortherefore has no more difliculty in freeing and opening one of theseback flaps than in freeing the closure flap of the ordinary envelop, andaccess to the contents of the envelop is thereby equally well afforded.

For these reasons, so far as I am aware, none of the so-called safetyenvelops heretofore proposed, and which depend for their closure solelyupon sealing by means of adhesive, have efficiently performed theirintended function or gone into extensive use. In order, however, toenable one surreptitiously to open such an envelop, it is essention thatthere be accessible the free edge or corner of a flap or other memberwhich when released will, either directly or indirectly, afford accessto the interior of the envelop. The present invention has, there-4 fore,fora more particular object the provision of an envelop whose parts aresecured together by adhesive in the usual manner, but which, whensealed, leaves exposed no edge or corner of any flap or member therelease of which can, without tearing or cutting, directly or indirectlyalford access to the contents of the envelop.

A further object of the invention is the provision of an envelop of thischaracter which can be manufactured at slightly if any greater expensethan the ordinary enve op, which can be closed and sealed withsubstantially equal facility, and which can be readily opened by theperson authorized to do so;

' Theforegoing and other objects of the invention, together with meanswhereby the same may be carried into effect, will best be understoodfrom the following description of one form or embodiment thereofillustrated in the accompanying drawings. It will be understood,however, that the precise construction described and shown has beenchosen for illustrative purposes merely, and that the invention, asdefined by the claims hereunto appended, may be otherwise practisedwithout departing from the spirit and scope thereof,

a In said drawings:

.Figure 1 is a perspective view, partly broken away, of the completeenvelop unsealed.

Fig. 2 i'sa substantially central transverse sectional view, on the line22, Fig. 3, of the envelop sealed.

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section on the line 3 3, Fig. 2. i

Fig.4 is a fragmentary plan view, greatly enlarged, of one of the uppercorners of the envelop,showing the latter closed.

Fig. 5 is a view on a reduced scale of the blank from which the envelopis made.

Said blank comprises a body portion 10 provided with a closure flap 11,oppositely extending side flaps. 12, and a bottom flap 13 provided. withextensions 14 projecting from its opposite edges adjacent its outer thebody portion 10, and so much of the upper or inner face thereof as liesbetween the body. portion and the extensions 14 is provided withadhesive 17 The extensions 14 are preferably of a slightly greater widththan the closure flap 11 and of a less width than the bottom flap 13,but are collectively of a length substantially equal to the length ofthe latter plus sufficient to provide overlapping endsj which, when saidextensions are folded inwardly, aresecured together by means of adhesive18.

In folding th'e envelop, the side flaps 12 are first folded inwardly andsecured togetherat their ends by the adhesive 16,

thereby inclosing the interior 19 of the envelop. The extensions 14'are, at the .same I time, folded inwardly. and securedtogether at theirends by theadhesive 18. The bottom flap 13 is then folded upwardly,overlying the side flaps 16'to which the lower 5 part thereof issecuredby the adhesive 17.

This brings the extensions 14 to a position intermediatethe side flapsand bottom flap,

said extensions forming a pocket 20 whose free outer end is providedwith an opening adapted to receive the closure flap 11, but i and edges.I

which is otherwise fullyclosed at all sides It will be observed that theforegoing ffoldingoperations are closely analogous to V those performedin the manufacture of an 6 5 ordinary envelop and can be readilyperformed by machinery of well known type but slightly modified, whilethe blank herein described may also be cut out by dies at a singleoperation in the usual manner.

To close and seal the envelop, the adhesive 15 on the opposite faces ofthe closure flap 11 is moistened and said flap inserted into the pocket20, this operation being facilitated by the free edge of the bottom flap18 by which said pocket is carried, and which permits said edge to bebent in any direction to meet said flap 11. Thereafter the adhesive 15causes the closure flap to be secured to bot-h walls of the pocket 20.

7 It will be seen that when the envelop is sealed the joint between theside flaps 12 is covered by the bottom flap 13, which is the outermostflap, and which is of the same area as the body of the envelop; whilethe edges of the closure flap are inclosed by the pocket 20. There areno exposed corners (either in the construction of the body or in thesealing means) at which the unsealing of the envelop might be initiatedand, indeed, no exposed edges on any flap whose release could, eitherdirectly or indirectly, give access to the interior 19 of the envelop.The only exposed edges are at the lower portions of the ends of thebottom flap 13, as indicated at 21 in Fig. 1, and at the upper edge ofsaid flap at the mouth of the pocket 20, as indicated at 22 in Fig. 2.Neither of these, however, offers any opportunity for the surreptitiousunsealing or opening of the envelop. The most that could be accomplishedfrom the edges 21 would be the unsealing of the bottom flap 13 from theside flaps 12, but this would not render accessible the interior of theenvelop, which is fully inclosed by the flaps 12, whose joint 16 isrendered inaccessible by the flap 13 which, in turn, is securely held atits upper edge by the flap 11. By working at the edge 22 it might bepossible to release the outer face of the flap 11 from the outer wall ofthe pocket 20, but this would leave the inner face of said flap securedto the inner wall of said pocket, and it would be impossible to releasethe same without access to the edge of said flap which, however, couldbe obtained only by tearing away the outer wall of the pocket.

In order to make it still more difficult to utilize the exposed edges 21and 22 for the purpose of surreptitiously opening the envelop, saidenvelop is preferably provided with lines of perforations 23 arrangedadjacent and parallel to said edges. By means of these perforations theedges in question are weakened, so as to be torn by anyone tamperingwith the same, thereby indicating that an attempt has been made to openthe envelop.

The envelop can be easily opened by the person. authorized to do so by'inserting the finger or a suitable implement into the space 24, betweenthe pocket 20 and end flaps 16, and tearing the flap 11 along itsline ofjuncture with the body 10.

It will furthermore be seen that, by reason of the fact that the bottomflap 13 is of substantially the same area as the body portion 10, andoverlies the closure flap 11 when the envelop is sealed, said bottomflap presents, at the back of the envelop, a face similar to the frontface thereof and substantially unbroken except by the perforations 23,which may or may not be employed, but which, at all events, are so nearthe edge as not to interfere with the use of the back face for thepurpose of receiving the address. The Writer, therefore, after scalingthe envelop may address the same in either face, or should an error bemade in addressing, the incorrect address can be canceled and thecorrect one written on the other face.

Having thus described my invention I claim and desire to secure byLetters Patent:

1. An envelop comprising a body portion and a closure flap, said bodyportion being provided with a plurality of overlapping flaps theoutermost of which is provided at the exterior of the envelop with apocket having an opening to receive said closure flap but otherwisefully closed at all sides and edges.

2. An envelop comprising a body portion,

a closure flap, side flaps, and a bottom flap provided with extensionsprojecting from its opposite edges adjacent its outer end, said sideflaps being folded inwardly, said bottom flap overlying said side flapsand being secured thereto, and said extensions being folded inwardly toform a pocket adapted to receive said closure flaps.

3. An envelop comprising a body portion and a closure flap, said bodyportion being provided with a plurality of overlapping flaps theoutermost of which is provided at the exterior of the envelop with apocket having a free edge provided with an opening to receive saidclosure flap but otherwise fully closed at all sides and edges.

4. An envelop comprising a body portion, a closure flap gummed upon bothsides, side flaps collectively substantially equal in area to said bodyportion, and a bottom flap also substantially equal in area to said bodyportion, and provided with extensions of less width than the width ofsaid bottom flap projecting from the opposite edges of the ,latteradjacent its outer end, said side flaps being folded inwardly andsecured together at their ends, said bottom flap overlying said sideflaps and being secured thereto, and said extensions being foldedinwardly between said side flaps and bottom flap and being securedtogether at their ends to form a pocket adapted to receive said closureflap.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

EDl VARD D. HOTCHKISS.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C.

